Mental illness in sport

In this chapter, I examine current substantive streams in the social scientific study of mental illness in sport and physical culture. At a time when sport and exercise are increasingly inserted into the politics and practice of ‘improving’ mental health for the widest possible groups, it is important to reflect on sport’s complicated relationship with mental health and illness. In the chapter, I review elements of my own pathway into the field of study, provide an overview of brief synopsis of the history of the field, and identify several core areas of future research for mental illness researchers whilst examining what scholars know, and do not know, about mental illness and athlete groups. The chapter also addresses theoretical and methodological preferences in the study of mental health in sport and cautions against the privileging of potentially overused means of addressing areas of focus including depression, anxiety, suicide ideation and addiction among others.